Nearly one year after being acquired by The Home Depot, a new program is bringing Interline Brands' catalog into Home Depot stores – and early results are "exceeding expectations, really three times expectations," said Bill Lennie, executive vice president of outside sales and service, in a call to discuss the second-quarter results.
The program, currently in 20 stores, allows professional contractors access to the Interline catalog alongside the standard in-store options. While still in its early days, the positive response is "encouraging," Lennie said.
The program is just one more step in the ongoing integration process, with the ultimate goal of providing end-to-end service for professionals. When The Home Depot announced the acquisition a year ago, the home improvement retailer already had a strong presence in remodel, but it was weaker in MRO.
“We want one account for customers, one technology platform for everyone, one product catalog and one team working for the same thing,” Frank Blake, general manager of renovation services for Home Depot, recently told the Jacksonville Business Journal.
Interline's contribution to sales growth in the second quarter was notable, according to Carol Tome, CFO and executive vice president of corporate services. "Our topline growth exceeded our comp sales growth because of the impact of Interline," she said.
Sales for the second quarter were $26.5 billion, a 6.6 percent increase over the same period a year ago. Profit increased 9.3 percent to $2.4 billion.
Online sales grew about 19 percent year-over-year, accounting for 5.6 percent of total sales.
